All posts tagged Ma Ying-jeou

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou, entering his final year in office, is pushing hard to protect what he sees as the crowning achievement of his administration – better ties with China. That hinges on an arcane but politically convenient accord with Beijing that is often referred to as the “1992 Consensus” – a consensus that now appears increasingly difficult to hold together.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou defended the rapprochement he has forged with China, saying the closer ties have boosted Taiwan’s economy and security and shouldn’t be tampered with by whoever succeeds him.

Entering his eighth and last year in office, Mr. Ma rebuffed suggestions that his China policy is proving divisive in Taiwan and costing his ruling Kuomintang party popular support ahead of January’s presidential elections. Read More »

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou made a low-key trip to Singapore to pay tribute to late Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew–so low-key that the government announced Mr. Ma’s departure hours after his plane took off Tuesday.

The trip is the first by a sitting Taiwanese president to Singapore in a quarter century. The apparent reason for being so secretive: China. Read More »

China gave the new chief of Taiwan’s ruling party a Beijing-style “high five,” signaling its hope he will help make a fresh start in cross-strait ties. But the enthusiastic welcome for Eric Chu may turn out to be as much a hindrance as a help. Read More »

Student demonstrators have ended their siege of Taiwan’s legislature, allowing a peaceful return to lawmaking and ending a challenge to President Ma Ying-jeou and his plans for a trade pact with China.

But the three-week standoff over the ruling Nationalist Party’s plans for a services trade accord – and, more broadly, relations with China — has altered the political landscape, sending a not particularly welcome message to the island’s two main political parties, and to Beijing as well. Read More »

China’s surprise assertion of a new air defense identification zone has alarmed Japan and South Korea and put the U.S. on alert. It could also end up inflicting some serious damage to its ties with Taiwan.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou – who has invested heavily in improving ties with China – is now dodging the flak fired in his direction since Beijing unveiled its ADIZ, which overlaps with similar zones of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Already struggling with approval ratings of around 11%, Mr. Ma hardly needs this additional headache, particularly as his party eyes important elections later next year. Read More »

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has been drawn deeper into a political fight involving some of the biggest heavyweights of the island’s ruling party.

Mr. Ma late Thursday was summoned as a witness by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office over its probe into Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming. Taipei prosecutors are probing whether Mr. Huang breached Taiwanese anti-leaking laws when he shared information with Mr. Ma about an ongoing investigation into a senior Taiwanese lawmaker.

According to the law, all information regarding a pending criminal investigation is confidential and leakers could face up to three years behind bars. Messrs. Huang and Ma say that the investigation didn’t involve allegation of criminal activity, so that the law wasn’t violated.

The fight has put Mr. Ma under a spotlight in Taiwan, where his public poll numbers have dropped sharply since winning re-election last year. It has also exposed rifts in Taiwan’s ruling party, the Kuomintang, which Mr. Ma leads.

At the center of the case is the investigation into the senior Taiwanese lawmaker, Wang Jin-pyng. Mr. Wang is Legislative Speaker, or head of the legislature, and a top Kuomintang member. Read More »

As many as 5,500 gathered in the streets of Taipei on Sunday to protest, calling for President Ma Ying-jeou to step down.

The protests were fueled partly by recent revelations that the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigations Division tapped legislators’ phones. Others came to criticize Mr. Ma’s pursuit of closer trade ties with China, which has left many Taiwanese concerned about the direction of their democratic island. Read More »

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou’s attempt to oust a well-liked legislative speaker has dragged his approval ratings down into the single digits, sparking the question why a seasoned politician like Mr. Ma is willing to risk his political capital just to sack one person.

For almost two weeks, Taiwan’s fractious political establishment has debated why the ruling party chose to blackball its longstanding heavyweight and legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng. The escalating political crisis has plunged Mr. Ma’s approval rating down to a new low of 9.2% from 13%, according to a poll.Read More »

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